American Scene

HARTFORD — The Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is coming back to Yale University under an agreement signed Monday, joining the Naval ROTC in returning to the Ivy League campus after a decades-long absence.

Yale had been among other prominent universities without ROTC programs until May, when it agreed to bring back the Naval ROTC after Congress voted to allow gays to serve openly in the military.

The Air Force and Navy detachments are both expected to open at the New Haven campus in the fall of 2012.

Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Yale President Richard Levin signed the agreement establishing the Air Force ROTC detachment. It will enroll cadets from Yale as well as other Connecticut universities that participate in cross-town arrangements.

ILLINOIS

Study: Older pills often safer; many think new is better

CHICAGO — Many consumers mistakenly think new prescription drugs are always safer than those with long track records, and that only extremely effective drugs without major side effects win government approval, according to a new study.

A national survey of nearly 3,000 adults finds that about 4 in 10 wrongly believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves only “extremely effective” drugs. One in 4 mistakenly believes the FDA allows only drugs that don’t have serious side effects.

That means consumers “may not get the benefit from drugs they think they’re getting, or they may expose themselves to more harm than they think” said study co-author Dr. Steven Woloshin of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the VA Outcomes Group.

The new survey, appearing in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine, revealed a partial solution to consumer confusion: Simply worded cautions can make a difference in which drugs people choose.

NEW YORK

IBM puts Watson to work in health insurance

WHITE PLAINS — IBM’s supercomputer system, best known for trouncing the world’s best “Jeopardy!” players on TV, is being tapped by one of the nation’s largest health insurers to help diagnose medical problems and authorize treatments.